Maven Explorer: executing a specific lifecycle phase opens generic goal picker instead of running that phase

[moni-dips]

Describe the bug
When using the Maven Explorer in VS Code, clicking the execute/play action next to a specific lifecycle phase such as compile does not run that phase directly. Instead, it opens a generic prompt asking me to choose a goal again. This is confusing and makes the UI look broken, because the action appears to be attached to a specific phase.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open a Maven project in VS Code.
2. Open the Maven Explorer.
3. Expand a project’s Lifecycle section.
4. Click the execute/play icon next to compile.
5. A generic goal-selection prompt opens.

Expected behavior
The extension should run mvn compile directly for that project, or the UI should clearly indicate that the button opens a goal picker rather than executing the selected lifecycle phase.

Why this is a problem

The current behavior is misleading because the execute icon is shown next to a concrete lifecycle phase. Users reasonably expect that clicking execute on compile will execute compile, not ask them to choose compile again.

Environments (please complete the following information as much as possible):

• OS: Windows 11
• VS Code version: 1.113.0
• Extension version 0.45.1

Screenshots

Additional context
The UX violates the user’s mental model: an action rendered inline on a specific lifecycle phase should execute that phase, not reopen a global chooser.

[github-actions]

Hi @moni-dips, I'm an AI Support assistant here to help with your issue. While the team reviews your request, I wanted to provide some possible tips and documentation that might help you in the meantime.

Workaround

• Use the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run the dedicated phase command, e.g. Maven: compile.
• Or right-click the project in the Explorer, choose Run Maven Goal, and enter compile.

Next Steps

This appears to be a UX bug in the VS Code Maven extension. You can:

• Upvote or file an enhancement request to run the phase directly by clicking its play icon:
  https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-maven/issues/new?template=feature_request.md

No existing GitHub issue exactly matches this behavior.

The team will respond to your issue shortly. I hope these suggestions are helpful in the meantime. If this comment helped you, please give it a 👍. If the suggestion was not helpful or incorrect, please give it a 👎. Your feedback helps us improve!

[moni-dips]

as a workaround, I ended up setting up a tasks.json to run mvn compile and dotnet build when I hit ctrl+alt+b, but I do hope this ux bug gets fixed at some point :)